NEW PARADIGMS

Freezing to death

Causa mortis: belief

The perception strength acquires a strangely disturbing appearance in this story of a railroad worker in California.

The man was sent to examine some load in a refrigerated wagon. While he was inside the wagon, the door closed accidentally, trapping him in the interior. The man didn't mark the point at the end of his turn, and a colleague, that looked for him, found him dead in the wagon. The following words were written on the wall: "Nobody hears my help screams. My hands and my feet are getting colder. I don't know how long more I can stand".

The sinister side of this history is just that the wagon had been deviated to an extension because its refrigeration unit wasn't working. The external temperature was above 25 °C and, though the temperature in the wagon had been lightly lower, was far from being cold. There was also enough air for the man to breathe. Then, what happened? His perception of himself freezing to death was so strong that it became reality.

Bill Capodagly and Lynn Jackson

In The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

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